I'm head tech for a few small/medium sized venues all running active PA systems.Both I and the previous head tech had a lot of issues with speakers failing at what seems to be an excessive rate. I think I slowed things down a bit by setting up extra protection limiting on the desk matrices, but after yet another sub bit the dust at the weekend I really need to get a handle on it.The problem with these venues is the people running them either don't have the money or can't be persuaded to spend on more suitable gear. It's switched on 24/7 and used as the background house system during the day. This is obviously not ideal.Weird thing is the older RCF 312s and Mackie 450s seems to be pretty rock solid and have rarely failed over the last few years. The newer and supposedly DSP protected Turbosound M15s and M18s on the other hand seem to have an abysmal failure rate, with the M15s having to be sent back repeatedly and taking 1-2 months each time to come back fixed. Because of the type of faults occurring it's clearly an issue with the amp circuitry rather than crap engineers blowing tweeters etc...Now in an ideal world the venues would have proper passive amp/speaker systems set up, with separate systems for daytime background music, but I know this is never going to happen! After the latest failures there is finally talk in the company about renting in a more professional PA at one of the venues until we've got the gear fixed, but not sure if that will be a long term thing. Or the bar management would switch the PA on in the morning and off once they've finished clearing up etc... Knowing how these venues work, this won't ever happen either.So solution I'm currently thinking is some sort of high wattage mains switch for the tops, timed to go off about 2am in the morning and back on again at say 10am, to hopefully give the amps a 'break'. Meanwhile subs will be manually switched on and off by engineers in the evenings (figure it's best not to put them on the timer due to excessive power consumption).The small home plug timers clearly aren't suitable for running a whole PA off, so was thinking something like this: http://gbhydro.co.uk/product/4-way-prof ... contactor/ Would this be appropriate?Does this seem like a good plan? Anything else I should be looking at - power conditioners etc..???Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

I think that's a great idea - I've considered doing the same thing for my jamhall

Can do all that anyway using presets on the X32, but yes some presets so the subs aren't doing anything during the day is a good idea, thanks.***These aren't separate amp/passive speaker systems we're talking about, but active systems I suspect aren't engineered with the thought they're going to be on 24/7 with background music all day and bands in evening.However, the older Mackie 450s, RCF 312s and RCF active subs seem to be able to withstand this treatment and rarely fail. The newer, supposedly more powerful and DSP protected Turbosound M15s and M18s meanwhile were/are failing frequently across two sites, to the extent that I stopped using them at one site so another site would have spares we could swap while they're sent back for repair - they supposedly have a ten year warranty, but I have a feeling Thomann are going to stop playing ball sooner or later. They're also a total PITA to pack and return and it takes ages each time something goes wrong.In a perfect world, someone who knows what they're doing would be there to power down/up correctly at the end of the night/each morning, but for a load of reasons (venue not wanting to pay engineer to be there until the end of the night, different bar management each night, etc...) I can't see this happening.These failures have been occurring across two venues and other less powerful equipment doesn't fail at any where near the same rate in these two venues (plus a third venue ran by the same people). I suspect from being on 24/7 they're not getting a chance to cool down. So my hunch is the amps in these specific Turbosound M15 & M18 speakers are poorly engineered/not really suitable for always on permanent installs.The timer would just be on the speakers, not the mixer feeding it. I guess it comes down to whether there is more risk of failure in the power being cut and restored automatically for 6 hours in the early hours vs. any potential increase in reliability in not having them on 24/7. Any further thoughts?

It isn't uncommon to have automated power systems for sabbath-compliant PA systems in synagogues, so if there's a large congregation in your area, I'd ask them if they use such a system and get a recommendation, or do some searching online for kosher sound systems. You might want the switch to be integrated into the breaker panel, and an electrician may even have a recommendation for an integrated timed, switched circuit breaker. There has to be some reliable solution for high power timed switching, as used for lighting in parks, parking lots and such.

wow, signature updated

Facundo wrote:All the kosher mackie x32 soundsystem could be totally fucked in Saturday if it's powered with impure electricity. Unknowing the kind and noun of the sacrified rocks, fishes, mammals and it's gender... A rat or an impure bird in the chain could ruin your perfect Saturday.viewtopic.php?f=4&t=67549

The obvious sig is Sabbath Compliant PA Systems.= Justin